5 SP, 2 LR, one who can start in a pinch, one with dur and stam of over 35 on each value, 4 Set Up, durability of at least 65 and stamina of over 30 for 3 of the 4 set up. This give you the flexability to have 3 C, 6 COF/CIF, and 5 MI/CF on the roster.

I try for 10 pitchers: five starters; one swingman; four setup men of some variety depending on ability, but I prefer one Setup A who can throw 120+ innings and three Setup B to compliment.

But, yeah, whatever gets you to enough innings with the best guys pitching the most innings. Sometimes that means tandem starters, sometimes it means four starters and heavy reliance on the bullpen. Whatever works.

Many experienced owners believe you leave a lot of good innings on the table with the use of a closer. There are no "pressure" situations in HBD but you'd most likely use your best RP as a closer. So you have to decide if 40 innings in the 9th is more valuable than 73 innings in the 7th/8th/9th.

IMO, the only use for a closer would be those great pitchers with the low DUR/STM combo(30/9 type of thing) who can only throw 35-40 innings.

No designated closer, for exactly the reason that Mike describes above.

If one of my SU guys is noticeably weaker than the others, then I go with 3 SUA with the weaker guy being a SUB; otherwise, I have 4 SUA.

I'll try to skip my SP5 if the schedule allows, so my rotation might typically be a 41/2 man rotation. Sometimes when I have a long stretch of games with no off days and start to see fatigue in my SPs, I might have to give my LRA a spot start, so I swing him into the rotation and move my Mop guy to LRA for that game.

Posted by MikeT23 on 12/26/2012 9:54:00 AM (view original):Many experienced owners believe you leave a lot of good innings on the table with the use of a closer. There are no "pressure" situations in HBD but you'd most likely use your best RP as a closer. So you have to decide if 40 innings in the 9th is more valuable than 73 innings in the 7th/8th/9th.

IMO, the only use for a closer would be those great pitchers with the low DUR/STM combo(30/9 type of thing) who can only throw 35-40 innings.

Pretty much this. I have had success with getting closers into high leverage innings by designating them to come in to any inning, regardless of whether it is a save situation, particularly if the guy can throw two or three innings at a time. Even then I was leaving some innings on the table, but I had two guys capable of pitching over 100 innings of outstanding relief so I used one as the designated closer to define the workload a bit more -- in that instance I usually had both guys pitching in tight games, of which I played many. But usually the closer role just limits that guy's innings when really you should be wanting him in as many as possible. With a good enough reliever (and sufficient durability/stamina), you can get 40% or more of your bullpen innings out of a Setup A guy. And if you really want to see those saves get tallied, a Setup A guy pitching that many innings of relief should also end up with > 25 saves a season.

My staff is almost always set up as tec describes. Occasionally I'll have a 12th pitcher if my starters arent as durable as I'd like, or if my bullpen is staffed with RPs who can onl go 50-60 innings per season.

Being no pucker factor in HBD, closers are pretty much a waste of time. Even with a lights out low stamina/durability guy, I usually look to trade them if I can, as other owners will put more value in a "closer" than I will so I can get a better return for my team.

This guy is a career closer in one of my worlds, and he has an outstanding amount of saves. Big deal, he should have been a career SuA, giving 150 innings a year, instead of the lights out 40 he has been giving. His owner has been sucking up the additional 100 innings with a lesser arm, and it is costing him games.

wow yea that guy is lights out. How do you configure how many innings a player can give you throughout a year? Like the majors I have been resting my relief pitchers after they pitch back to back games even if they are at 100%. My guess is this is not a good idea.

I never set a pitcher to rest, unless I plan to force him to pitch a certain game in the future (usually in the playoffs). I set them to not go unless they are 80% or above and let the sim choose who goes. If he is at or near 100% he doesn't care if he has not pitched in months or 15 games in a row. Pixels are like that.

As for knowing how many innings a pitcher can give you, you just learn to estimate it after playing this game for a time. It is a combo of his durability, stamina and also his effectiveness/pitch count. The gems with durability of 80+ and stamina of 40+ that are also good pitchers are highly valuable as they can pitch an inning or two almost every game.